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Tuesday, November 29, 2016

IGP raps Maria for holding bullet, contaminating evidence

Inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar has chided Bersih chairperson Maria Chin Abdullah for holding a bullet that she received as a death threat.

He said her action contaminated the evidence with her own fingerprints.

“Next time if she finds something, don’t hold the bullet and show it around. Keep it, we want to lift fingerprints from it.

“She went ahead to hold (the bullet) and show it around, so it is her fingerprints we would find. Don’t disturb it, and leave it to us to investigate. Don’t destroy the evidence.

“Now, what are we supposed to look for? It is her fingerprints that we would get,” he told a press conference this morning.

Khalid was responding to a question regarding the death threat that Maria discovered at her home yesterday, which she revealed during a press conference.

The police chief assured that the threat would be investigated.

“We would investigate. She has lodged a report and we would investigate. We investigate all reports, not sit around idly,” he said.

Maria said she believes the bullet was hand-delivered to her home on Nov 18, which was also the day she was arrested under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012.

Apart from the bullet, there was a sheet of paper, which read: "Last warning if not RIP Marina [sic] & family."

During the press conference, Maria took the .45 Automatic bullet out of an envelope to show it to members of the press. Several other members of the Bersih secretariat also held the bullet during the press conference.

On a separate matter, Khalid said police have recorded statements from an Al-Jazeera reporter involved in the production of the documentary titled ‘Malaysia: Babies for Sale - 101 East’.

He said the reporter was called in for investigation on the same day the documentary was released on Nov 24, to facilitate investigations on the allegation of a baby-selling racket in Malaysia.

“We are studying the information (the reporter) has given and we are working on it. We are cooperating with the women’s ministry and the heath ministry in uncovering and identifying those who are involved, if any.

“As I had mentioned earlier, our action is continuous. We have never been negligent on this; when we receive information on this, we take immediate action,” he said.

He also reiterated his earlier statement that Malaysia is not a baby-selling hub although cases of baby-selling do take place.-Mkini